Parking ticket blues? SmartChicago, city produce restricted-zones map

This street sign, near Plymouth Court in the South Loop, indicates that only cars displaying a parking permit for zone 365 can legally park on this side of street.

This street sign, near Plymouth Court in the South Loop, indicates that only cars displaying a parking permit for zone 365 can legally park on this side of street. (Marina Makropoulos / Chicago Tribune / 2012)

A new online map of city parking zones aims to help motorists avoid parking tickets and software developers build helpful urban apps.

Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza unveiled the map Thursday at the 1871 tech incubator, saying it should cut down on the “tuition of life” checks Chicagoans write in the form of $75 parking tickets from restricted zones. You can access the map here.

At the heart of the problem was Chicago’s complex network of 1,429 active residential parking zones, many carved into smaller areas with unique restrictions, Mendoza said. She said the zones cover 20 percent of the city.

“The No. 1 request we get from motorists is how do they get access to this map” of restricted parking zones, Mendoza said.

Mendoza, who brought the book with her to the press conference, said it was difficult both to access – you had to come downtown to peruse it – and to keep up to date. Zone information was searchable by address online. But until now, there was no citywide map of restricted parking zones on the Internet, she said.

The city says SmartChicago Collaborative created the map for free. Dan O’Neil, SmartChicago’s executive director, said the city clerk’s office approached him about creating a map and one of the design consultants on his team, Josh Kalov of Kalov Strategies, did it in a few hours, using data accessible through the city’s online Open Data Portal.

O’Neil said the map also will help startups, in particular three that appeared at Thursday’s event — free-parking app Meter Beaters, rental-research service RentConfident and street-parking finder Parknav.

“The market is already supporting these three companies,” O’Neil said. “I’m very impressed with what they are doing.”

Nick Massuci, chief technology officer for Meter Beaters, said he’s already using the map on his site.

“I’ve actually tested out the data, and it’s very much correct,” he said.

Kay Cleaves, creator and developer of RentConfident.com, said she’ll use the data to help renters evaluate neighborhoods around properties they are considering.